COATESVILLE, Ind. — The nationwide shortage of baby formula is forcing parents to get creative to find ways to feed their infants.
From Facebook groups to sharing supplies with friends, many are just doing what they can to get by.
A Hendricks County family's search recently took them across state lines.
As first-time parents of premature twins, Katey and Blaine Evans were ready for their share of sleepless nights.
“Actually, knock on wood, I think we’re better than most when it comes to schedule and getting a little more sleep,” Blaine said, tapping on a coffee table in his Coatesville home.
These days, though, it’s not their 5-month-old twin babies, Brigham and Barrett, keeping the couple up at night. It’s their worry about being able to feed their babies amid a national shortage of baby formula.
“It’s not something you think you’re going to have to worry about as a new parent. You don’t think about there being a formula shortage, and you don’t think about not being able to feed your baby. That’s the scariest part,” said Katey.
The twins use Similac Neosure. It's made by Abbott Nutrition, the company that just reached an agreement with the Food and Drug Administration to reopen their plant to ease the formula shortage.
Before that, though, Abbott issued a voluntary recall of certain powdered formulas, pulling its product off store shelves.
At first, the Evans didn’t notice a difference.
“I had no idea," said Blaine. "Amazon showed up and formula was there. The boys were fed. Everybody was happy.”
That is, until one day last month, when Katey couldn’t find the twins’ formula online anywhere.
“We found one can at a Walgreens on 38th Street, and so Blaine drove to Indianapolis and we bought the one can that they had and then, a couple days later, that’s when I made that Facebook post,” she explained.
Katey went on Facebook and asked family and friends to be on the lookout for the twins' formula when they went shopping, and to buy and send what they found.
“I was like, 'This is our last-ditch effort.' Blaine wanted to change formula brands and he was very adamant that he wanted to change and I’m like, ‘It’s just not that easy,’” Katey recalled, especially, she added, not with preemies, like the twins, who need all the nutritional help they can get.
After Katey posted about her struggle finding the twins’ formula, friends and family from coast to coast started sending what they could find.
“We’ve had people ship us one can if they found it, or we had a friend in southern Indiana send us like 15 that they had found at their local store,” Katey said.
Through her post and another Facebook group for parents looking for formula, the Evans have also been able to help find baby formula for more than 30 other families in the same boat.
“I joke with our friends that it’s becoming like a formula distribution center around here,” Blaine said, laughing.
Jokes aside, the Evans hope the shortage comes to an end soon. Their family has enough right now, but that could change.
“It’s definitely one of the craziest parts or scariest parts, I guess I would say, about being a parent, is kind of wondering if you’re going to be able to feed your baby tomorrow or next week or two months from now,” said Katey.
That’s how far ahead these parents are thinking, to two months from now, when Barrett and Brigham are going to be even bigger, and needing more to eat to keep it going that way.
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